Our friend Jay Cooke

Okay, so we don't really know who Jay Cooke is and he isn't really our friend, but we did go to the state park named after him and spent the night in his wild backyard. We put the Honda Element to good use and packed it up with our camping gear and coolers, picked up the Lockner newlyweds and hit the highway going north towards Duluth. Sam ended up taking over the driving midway (thanks Sam) so I could sit in the back with Sarah and look at respectable Hollywood gossip magazines. Can you believe Brad and Angelina used IVF to have twins?!

We were a little unprepared for our 2.5 mile hike into the wilderness of Jay Cooke State Park. I guess the best way to explain is by showing you a picture. Sam prematurely won the award for best sport, but then I had to revoke it since he threatened to leave me on the trail when my cooler busted open and would not close.

Somehow Sam got stuck with the largest cooler and two backpacks.

Tim may look more prepared than Sam, but you do not see the second cooler in this picture.

Note: This is not the trail, it is the park entrance. The trail was filled with cliffs, rocks, swamps, bogs and fallen trees. Oh and biting blood-sucking horseflies.

Once we got to our remote camping site (a strenuous hour+ later), we cracked the Sparks, explored our surroundings, cooked up some food and played a killer game of devil ball with a log bat and a perfectly shaped rock ball. Note: this is not a safe game, nor is climbing 20 feet into a tree on a cliff, and forging a rushing rapid filled river just for the sake of seeing what the rocks look like on the other side. Sassy boys!!!!

I also feel the need to mention how much we learned about each other while spending the night under the stars with just nature's backyard to entertain ourselves. The dominating topic somehow turned to super powers and we found out that Sam would choose to be invisible (I won't even go there, stay away from mysterious air-floating cameras) and Tim wants to fly. Sarah and I just want to destroy evil with our fire throwing and laser shooting selves.

What would your super power be?

Oh how beautiful you are Jay Cooke.